American · 1888–1959
Raymond Chandler created Philip Marlowe, the Los Angeles private eye who walks mean streets with his own moral code. "The Big Sleep" (1939) introduced Marlowe; six more novels followed. Chandler came to fiction late, after careers in business and oil; he brought an outsider's eye to L.A.'s corruption. His style—wisecracks, similes, melancholy—defined the hardboiled detective novel and influenced everything that followed.